The Telecom Commission has deferred a proposal to impose 8 percent annual license fee on Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
The decision will offer a big relief to Indian internet companies such as Bharti Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Communications, Tata Docomo, MTNL, MTS, etc.
The important decision was taken last week by Department of Telecom (DoT) Secretary Rakesh Garg at a meeting of the commission last week.
DoT secretary, according to a report in Times of India, is of the view that the proposal needs to be discussed further as levying an annual fee may lead to an increase in Indian internet tariffs. The proposed 8 percent annual license fee on ISPs will also negatively impact the government’s Digital India project, one of the main initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
DoT is of the view that imposing a fee on ISPs could hinder their efforts of connecting the cities and rural area through internet and that will in turn impact Digital India.
Digital India has a project cost of Rs 1.13 lakh crore.
Earlier this year, telecom regulator TRAI suggested a new definition of revenue for ISPs on which the government should levy 8 percent annual fee.
TRAI suggested a uniform license fee of 8 percent of the AGR for all ISP and ISP-internet telephony licenses.
India is targeting to achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020 at minimum 2Mbps download speed and making available higher speeds of at least 100Mbps on demand.
editor@telecomlead.com
